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Hiei visits his parent's home in hopes of finally reconciling with his father.

"Burying the Kunai"

Yotsuki Village - Kumogakure

Spring has come to Kumogakure and Hiei finds himself moving through the Yotsuki village towards the dwelling of Yotsuki Kenshin and Yotsuki Aima, his mother and father. It had been some time since he had visited his parents. The last time he spoke with his mother was before his work had taken him to the Land of Tea and he had felt bad about that. While his relationship with his father was not the best, he was closest with his mother. They spend a lot of time together with her training him in lightning jutsu. He walks up to the door and automatically removes his shoes before walking in. He slides the door back and calls out. “Mother?”

Yotsuki Aima is sitting at a table sipping her afternoon tea. She hears the door open and rises smoothly to her feet before heading towards that way. Her eyes light up when she sees who it is and she rushes to Hiei, wrapping him up in a hug even though her head is no higher than his chin. “Hiei! I'm glad to see you. It's been way too long since you've visited last!”

Hiei returns his mother's hug with one of his own. “It's good to see you, Mother. I've missed you.” He flashes her a smile. “I was away on assignment in the Land of Tea. Aunt Aiko and Uncle Kenji sends their greetings.” He looks a little apologetic. “I had meant to visit sooner, but work got away from me. First in the Land of Rain, and then over the last couple of weeks I've been busy training the students for their upcoming graduation.”

Aima smiles softly at her son. “I'm still surprised that you decided to become an instructor at the academy. And you're still going on missions reguarly too? I suppose you've had a lot more time on your hands since you're no longer with..” She turns her head to the side. “I'm sorry..I didn't mean to bring her up.” She had been worried about him since she found out that he broke up with Misaki, and that she had ran away only to be brought back by Nariko. She places a comforting hand on his arm. “Things will work out for you, dear. Now..have you been practicing that new jutsu I taught you the last time we trained?”

Hiei exhales softly. “It's fine. I make it no secret that I still love her. I probably always will. However, until she gets her head on straight…” He shrugs faintly, trailing off there. He smiles again. “Yes. I've pretty much mastered the lightning disc technique. At first it was difficult shaping the chakra into the shape that I wanted, but it comes much easier now.” He pauses for a long moment before he asks. “Where's Father?”

Aima smiles with a proud look on her face. “That's great, Hiei. We'll have another lesson soon.” When he asks about Kenshin, she gets a worried look on her face. “He's in the back yard.” She knew what happened when those two got together. They almost always fought. She knew the reason why they butted heads so often was because they were so much alike it was almost uncanny. But they would never admit it to themselves, much less each other.

Hiei leans forwards to kiss Aima on the forehead before he moves past her. It was time that the issues between him and his father come to a head. His experiences with Misaki as of late has taught him at least one thing. Running away from your problems was never he answer. He steps confidently out into the back yard to see his father going through a kata. He crosses his arms over his chest. “Father. We need to talk.”

Kenshin moves through several moves of the lightning taijutsu style as he watches Hiei approach out of the corner of his eye. Even though Hiei doesn't know it, he has been keeping a close eye on his son's exploits as a shinobi. Using his contacts in the administration office he usually knows what Hiei is up to, with the exception of his KRD assignments. Even with Kenshin's connections, he had no idea about that one. He grunts faintly when Hiei addresses him. “I'm busy.” He continues moving as if Hiei isn't even standing there.

Hiei's jaw clenches as his anger rises. He was always doing that. Ignoring him for no reason. He honestly felt like that even despite all of his accomplishments, his father still didn't respect him. He growls. “I don't care, Old Man. I'm going to talk and you're going to listen.” He steps towards him with a determined look on his face. Hiei was no longer going to tiptoe around this man.

Kenshin's cheek twitches when he hears Hiei. He pauses and turns to face his son. “First, you'll get that bass out of your voice when you speak to me.. You may be all grown up, but I still outrank you. You will respect me!” He lunges forwards and shoots out his fist, aiming a punch for Hiei's face.

Hiei saw the punch coming and holds his hand up, palm side out, catching his father's fist in his outstretched hand. He shakes his head faintly. “I do respect you. It's why I haven't killed you, yet.” Hiei's hand doesn't waver as he applies a little bit of pressure to Kenshin's fist. “I didn't come here to fight with you, Father. Are you going to listen to what I have to say?” He was trying to keep a straight face and ignore the blistering pain from the hand that his father struck. Man did it HURT.

Kenshin looks more than a little surprised that Hiei managed to stop his punch cold. ~When did the brat get so freaking strong!?~ He asks himself as he withdraws his fist and takes a couple of steps back. He pffts. “As if you could kill me, boy.” He snorts.“Fine. Talk.”

Hiei flexes his hand and then says, “I'm sure you know about that orb thing that was found not too long ago, right? I was on the team that retrieved it. There are rumors of war coming to the Land of Lightning. You've heard about this?”

Kenshin nods and crosses his arms over his chest just like Hiei was in the habit of doing. “Maybe. I know that the village has begun to mobilize in preparation. Your mother and I have been called out of retirement. A lot of others in the clan have as well. What of it?”

Hiei takes in a breath and releases it softly. “While we still have the time…I was hoping that you'd train me in our family's style.” Hiei had been giving this some thought. He came to the realization that while he will always be a kenjutsuist at heart, not learning lightning style taijutsu was a detriment to him. He had already been in situations where he lost his swords, or one or both of them were destroyed. Sure, he could fall back on his ninjutsu, but physical combat is his specialty. So he decided to swallow his pride and ask for help.

Kenshin blinks and allows an open look of shock to come across his face. “After all these years, you finally want to learn it? Why now of all times?” As his son utters the words that he had secretly hoped that he would, Kenshin feels a rush of relief. “I thought you had committed to learning everything you needed to know from Reizei Ogosokamaru.” That was more of a statement than a question.

“It's true that Ogo is my sensei…however you're my father.” Hiei spreads his hands. “We live in uncertain times. I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. Father, if something happened to you, then our style dies with you. I can't allow that to happen.” He looks off to the side. “I want to learn everything that you have to teach so that I can someday pass the knowledge to my own children.” He sighs. “We haven't seen eye to eye over the years. It's time for that to stop. We need to stop living in the past and look towards our future. I'm willing to do that if you are.”

Kenshin is silent for a moment as he thinks about that. It seems that his son had finally grown up. He nods and then moves forwards to lay a hand on Hiei's shoulder. “Then that's what we'll do. Kaoru is gone and there's nothing that can be done to bring her back. I've been holding in this resentment for so long because I believed that you had turned your back on us. On me.” He shakes his head. “Apparently, you grew up and I missed it. But from this day forward, Hiei…” He actually smiles. “…you and I will work together to make sure that the Yotsuki clan survives whatever is coming.”